Word: reportings
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...June, the number of new houses being built unexpectedly jumped from the month before. The Census Department recently reported that June also showed an increase - a small increase, but one nonetheless - in the amount of money going toward residential construction. Housing permits, which also speak to builder confidence, are creeping up too. As an Aug. 10 report from Oppenheimer Asset Management put it, "this part of the housing market appears to be finding its footing." (See pictures of a modernist house...
...only worrisome part about that is what happens if demand then falters. Nationwide, we've seen an uptick in the number of people buying houses - both existing homes and new ones. But still, according to the Oppenheimer report, "the demand side of the equation is less than impressive." Nearly a third of existing-home sales are currently to first-time homebuyers - a wildly disproportionate amount. What happens to those buyers once the $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit evaporates at the end of this year? Even with home prices a steal in many parts of the country, whether demand...
...electrifying convention acceptance speech would dissipate as she increasingly appeared unprepared for the nation's No. 2 office. Top McCain strategist Steve Schmidt believed Palin's series of disastrous interviews with CBS' Katie Couric was "one of the worst performances ever" by a national political candidate (Balz and Johnson report that Palin put off preparing for the interview, oddly, to focus on completing a written questionnaire for a small Alaska newspaper, the Mat-su Valley Frontiersman). The Alaska governor touched off such turmoil and animosity within the campaign that, when it came to judging the varied allegations against...
...crisis in Indian policing is not restricted to the country's border states, and runs much deeper than the police's proclivity for "encounters." In an 118-page report, Broken System: Dysfunction, Abuse and Impunity in the Indian Police, released last week, Human Rights Watch has highlighted a range of corrupt practices by Indian police, including accepting bribes, arbitrarily arresting, detaining and torturing people, and carrying out extrajudicial killings. Indian police, it says, operate outside the law, lack requisite ethical and professional standards, and are overstretched and often outmatched by criminal elements. "India is modernizing rapidly, but the police continue...
...fairness, the Indian police often have to deal with abysmal working conditions, as the Human Rights Watch report points out: they cope with long hours and long periods of separation from families; often live in tents or filthy barracks at police stations; lack necessary equipment; and endure overwhelming workloads. India's police-population ratio is just 126 per 100,000 persons, whereas the ratio recommended by the UN for peacetime policing is almost double that. Hence, the temptation arises to take "short cuts" - such as arresting suspects illegally and forcing them to confess, instead of spending time collecting forensic evidence...